Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) and the national non-profit KaBOOM! awarded Healthy Jacksonville a Let’s Play Community Construction Grant that will be used to renovate the playground at Minnie Barr Park, 110 Walnut.

The playground build is made possible by Let’s Play, an initiative by KDP to provide the funding, equipment and play spaces to help kids and families make active play a daily priority. Through Let’s Play, KDP and its partners are committed to helping create safe and inspiring PLAYces for JACKSONVILLE kids to learn, explore, grow and just be kids.

 “Healthy Jacksonville is pleased to receive the Let’s Play grant from Keurig Dr Pepper and KaBOOM! This grant along with support from community partners including the City of Jacksonville will help us renovate Minnie Barr Park. ” said Lori Hartz, Director of Community Relations at Passavant Area Hospital . “We are excited about improving and adding more play equipment for the families in the neighborhood to enjoy!”

The $15,000 KDP and KaBOOM! grant will be used to buy additional playground equipment for the park. New equipment, geared towards preschool children and teenagers will complement the existing toys already in place. The children in the immediate neighborhood must travel a far distance to find another playground. Minnie Barr Park is a large space within walking distance of where many children live. A planning meeting was held in the neighborhood to explore what the children wanted in their park. In addition to playground equipment, there are plans to improve the basketball court and add other sports fields along with lighting, benches and shade structures. The project will be completed in the spring of 2020.     

KDP has committed $38.5 million to Let’s Play through 2019, impacting youth-serving organizations across the U.S., as well as Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. Through Let’s Play, KDP partners with two non-profit organizations, KaBOOM! and Good Sports, to build and improve playgrounds in underserved communities and provide grants for sports equipment. In this way, KDP is doing its part to help eliminate the play deficit by making active play possible for more kids.

Visit Let’s Play at www.LetsPlay.com to join the conversation and learn how to apply for the various available grants to make communities more active and playful.

###

About Healthy Jacksonville:

Healthy Jacksonville is a partnership between Passavant, SIU School of Medicine and MacMurray College which aims to increase access to health care for vulnerable or at-risk residents of Jacksonville using a holistic approach.

Healthy Jacksonville, modeled after a highly successful and award-winning community health worker program in the Enos Park neighborhood in Springfield. Community health workers are engaging with clients on Jacksonville’s northeast side. The goals are to help individuals create self-sufficiency, improved access to care, and established neighborhood connections with community providers. The Healthy Jacksonville strategy is to spend time in the neighborhood, get to know the neighbors, have conversations about access to care, find out who needs help, and then link neighbors with existing community resources.

 

About Let’s Play

Let’s Play is an initiative by Keurig Dr Pepper to provide the funding, equipment and play spaces to help kids and families make active play a daily priority. KDP partners with KaBOOM! to build and improve playgrounds and with Good Sports to provide sports equipment grants to kids that would otherwise not have access. Let’s Play has already provided more than 11 million kids new opportunities to play. With year-round grants available for new or improved playgrounds and sports equipment, Let’s Play helps kids achieve balanced, well-rounded lifestyles. For more information, please visit LetsPlay.com or Facebook.com/LetsPlay.

 

About KaBOOM!

KaBOOM! is the national non-profit dedicated to giving all kids – especially those living in poverty – the childhood they deserve through great, safe places to play. KaBOOM! inspires communities to make play the easy choice and works to drive the national discussion about the importance of PLAYces. KaBOOM! has collaborated with partners to build or improve more than 17,000 playspaces, engaged more than 1.5 million volunteers and served over 10 million kids. To learn why play matters for all kids, visit kaboom.org and join the conversation at twitter.com/kaboom, facebook.com/kaboom and instagram.com/kaboom. #playmatters #PLAYceforKids